ADAP

Anchor lead: A
program called ‘ADAP’ is helping raising awareness of depression in
adolescents, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Depression is a major factor in the increasing rate of
suicide among adolescents, and a program to help, known by the acronym ADAP,
developed by Karen Swartz, a psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins, and colleagues, is
now poised to be available on the web.

Swartz: The Adolescent Depression Awareness Program is a
school based program where we teach high school students, faculty and parents
about depression. It’s a universal curriculum so it’s not meant to be just for
kids you’re worried about and one reason we did that was so that there’s a
better support network around young people who are dealing with depression. :18

Swartz describes the website.

Swartz: We’ll be launching a new website where any high
school teacher in the country can sign on when we verify that they’re
affiliated with a high school, they’ll be able to do our training for free, and
download all the materials they need to teach the ADAP curriculum to the their
high school students at no charge. :17